Professor Ian Feavers, PhD is currently an emeritus senior research associate with Martin
Maiden’s group at the University of Oxford. He studied for his PhD at the University of
Newcastle upon Tyne and, following periods of postdoctoral research at the University of
Sheffield and the Friedrich Miescher Institut in Basel, moved to the National Institute for
Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC, part of the MHRA) in the UK.
At NIBSC he was Head of the Division of Bacteriology for ten years until his retirement in
September 2019 and prior to that headed the laboratory responsible for meningococcal
and pneumococcal vaccines. The focus of his research was on the antigenic diversity and
population biology of the meningococcus.
Whilst at NIBSC Ian served as the institute’s observer at JCVI in the UK and its
representative on the Vaccine Working Party of the EMA, regularly contributing to EMA,
EDQM and WHO guidelines. He is currently a member of the WHO’s Expert Committee on
Biological Standardisation and has served as the rapporteur for its meetings since 2019.